An older friend regularly liked to recite the following: “Never assume. To assume is to make an ‘ass’ of ‘u’ and ‘me’.” She did this for two reasons. Firstly, she was aware that I find such modern homilies twee and irri-tating. Secondly, she...
It was a very smart move of Tim Firth to adapt his 1998 TV comedy, Neville’s Island, for the stage in 2013. It has rarely – if ever – been out of production since. It looks like being another smart move for him to realise (or be...
Old Etonian, Eric Blair – better known to us as George Orwell – walked-the-walk rather more determinedly than most bourgeois left-leaning artists and intellectuals. His early works of social criticism (Down and Out in Paris and London...
Alcina’s love island casts its spell on Martin Thomasson You all, of course, know the story of Alcina. She (disguised as a he) is in love with him (who sings a bit like a she), but he (who sings a bit like a she) is bewitched by her (not her...
The clown/jester Rigoletto is not well-liked, but is good at his job – essentially, to make fun of the vulnerable for the amusement of his boss, the Duke of Mantua, and the duke’s hangers-on. The Duke is a ruthless and incorrigible womaniser...
Imagine, in your youth, doing something so terrible that you can never make it right. Even to try to explain your conduct sounds like a feeble attempt at rationalisation. All that is left to you is to hold your peace and serve your time. Marvin has...
Before I try to explain my regret that Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story was not the original, with Robert Wise’s 1961 version as the 2021 remake, I ought to declare an interest. West Side Story was the first film my mum took me to see. Early in...
I’d be absolutely useless in hell. I’d slide straight into a bottomless mood, and spend the rest of time and a day moping and feeling sorry for myself. As many a ballad will tell you, the point of being in hell, or encountering the devil in any...
In the early 1980s, Liverpool Playhouse staged what was billed as a ‘Marxist interpretation’ of Macbeth. Patrons soon discovered that, for this production, ‘Marx’ signified Groucho, Harpo and Chico. Purists were aghast. We students thought it was...
Opera North, in collaboration with Phoenix Dance, bring us a triple bill: two parts Bernstein with a new piece (“Halfway and Beyond”) based on a contemporary poem, sandwiched between. The evening opens with a revival of Matthew Eberhardt’s 2017...